Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Cats: Animal Breeding

Lord Black of Brentwood: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to regulate the breeding of cats to protect cats and their kittens.

Lord Benyon: Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the Regulations), anyone in the business of breeding and selling cats as pets needs to have a valid licence issued by their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse, vary or revoke licences. Defra has been working on a post-implementation review of the Regulations in line with the requirements of the Regulations’ review clause. This review considers whether the Regulations have met their objectives, and where there could be scope to further improve the protections they provide to breeding cats and their offspring. The review will be published soon.

Pets: Electronic Training Aids

Lord Black of Brentwood: To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to introduce legislation to ban the use of electric shock collars on cats and dogs in England.

Lord Benyon: The Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations will make it an offence to attach an electronic shock collar to a cat or dog, or to be in possession of a remote-control device capable of activating such a collar when attached to a cat or dog. The regulations have been considered in this House and will be considered in the Other Place in due course. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way.

Food: Waste

Lord Kamall: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of Lord Harlech on 21 September (HL Deb col 1533),whether any companies have asked them to maintain mandatory reporting on food waste, what were those companies, and whether any such companies have offered to pay the costs of that reporting rather than using public money.

Lord Benyon: In the 2022 consultation on improved food waste reporting, 40 companies supported introducing mandatory reporting for large businesses in England. These companies were from the manufacturing, retail, hospitality and primary production sectors. A list of respondents, excluding those who requested confidentiality, is included in the Government Response published in July 2023. If a mandatory approach were to have been taken forward, those companies in scope would be liable for the costs of reporting their food waste.

Animals and Plants: Customs

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask His Majesty's Government what checks are carried out on animal and plant products at UK borders; and what quarantine arrangements are in place for potentially infected products.

Lord Benyon: Checks are currently carried out on products of animal origin (POAO) and plant and plant products (P&PP) arriving in GB from outside of the EU, and on live animals and high-risk P&PP imports from the EU. The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) will deliver a new sanitary and phytosanitary regime applicable to all imports to GB with changes starting from January 2024. Under BTOM, controls will be risk-based and calibrated to the specific commodity and country of origin. Additional physical controls on certain EU imports will be conducted at Border Control Posts (BCPs) and Control Points (CPs) on a risk basis from April 2024. BCP and CP specifications vary according to the type of commodities received. BCPs and CPs contain suitable facilities for containing non-compliant consignments.

Agricultural Products and Food: Northern Ireland

Baroness Hoey: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the geographical boundary at which Regulation (EU) 2017/625 andthe associated EU acquis takeeffect so that food and agricultural products in Northern Ireland comply with that regulation.

Lord Benyon: A range of regulations apply to goods in Northern Ireland: EU regulations only apply to the extent set out in the Windsor Framework, varying dependent on whether the goods were produced in Northern Ireland or how the goods were moved from Great Britain. Where goods are moved under the new, more facilitative green lane and are destined for Northern Ireland; they will face no certification requirements, reduced checks and can be produced to UK public health and consumer protection standards. Goods moved through the red lane, on the other hand, will face full EU Official Control requirements including needing to comply with all EU animal, plant and public health regulations. To allow access to the NI, GB and EU markets, Northern Irish food and agricultural products will be produced to EU standards.

Department of Health and Social Care

NHS: Drugs

Lord Warner: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the evidence that the Department of Health and Social Care used to support the statement in the consultation on the Statutory Schemeto control the cost of branded health services medicines that investment in research and development in the UK was not a "net benefit".

Lord Markham: The approach to assessing the potential impacts on investment within the statutory scheme’s impact assessment followed well-established precedent and is in line with the Green Book paragraphs 6.5 and 6.6. As such, the impact assessment considers spillover benefits of investment, with a literature review suggesting an estimated mean benefit of 34% of the overall investment, but does not account for these within the net present value calculation due to investment being one of several possible company responses to change in profitability.

Cost of Living: Life Expectancy

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the increased cost of living on life expectancy.

Lord Markham: We have made no assessment of the impact of the cost of living on life expectancy. However, the Government is providing total support of over £94 billion over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living, one of the largest support packages in Europe. On 24 January 2023, we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy (MCS). This strategy will explore how we can tackle the key drivers of ill-health in England. It will focus on six major groups of conditions, namely cancers, mental health, cardiovascular disease (including stroke and diabetes), dementia, chronic respiratory diseases and musculoskeletal disorders, that account for approximately 60% of ill-health and early death in England. Related to the MCS, the Department has worked closely with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to understand the inequalities in mortality involving common physical health conditions including cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, dementia, diabetes and respiratory diseases. The Department has also previously worked with the ONS to estimate the number of people with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions living in poverty in England.